2 The fathers, the Secrets & the Chaos

"You're a lucky girl" Setupati was trying to impress a girl with his charming smile.

The girl smiled big and asked smartly, "And why am Iexactly lucky, Setu?".

"To start, you came to me to ask solve your problems. You know, I'm the only one in this town left with a true sight. Yes, you heard right. The only Astronomer with true sight to see through your past, present and future, only by seeing lines on your hand."

The girl looked at him unbelievably.

"You really are gifted, Setu". She seemed impressed.

"I believe you are the only one who can help me right now." She said with innocent eyes.

Setupati's heart melted after looking those big beautiful eyes, begging him to help.

"Anything for you, my princess". He said.

"I'm not a princess. But I want you to help me with my family problem." She asked.

"What can I help you, my princess?" He hadn't dropped his charm yet.

"You know, my uncle doesn't have an heir, who is very rich. I just want to take care him in his last days. Can you tell me that if I will ever get a chance to serve him?" She cleared her motives. She simply wanted her uncle dead and she wanted to know when he will die.

Setupati was more than smart enough to know her true motives. But her big beautiful eyes were betraying him.

"My princess, you surely will get a chance to serve your uncle. But there isn't any sign of that happening any sooner than few decades."

She seemed disappointed in him. The emotions in her eyes changed suddenly from innocent to furious.. She took away her hand from Setu's, stood up and walked away with anger.

He looked at her leaving like that & screamed,

"You have to at least pay me, princess."

But she didn't look back.

"She is not going to pay you, Setu. And she is not certainly going to date you. You're day-dreaming." Setu's friend Ravikant shouted at him from his shop.

Setu used to seat in front of Ravi's shop to run his exclusive business.

"Setu, you didn't say anything about your royal friend is coming to visit you today." Ravi continued asking questions.

Setu irritatingly answered, "what royal friend?"

"Can't you heae the people shouting there. He is coming to you I think. It's been years since he come down here to meet you. He could've asked you to come to the palace. Can't he?"

"He had asked for something. I don't remember." Setu replied carelessly.

"Hang on! The lord 'Vishwaprit' asked you to visit him, and you just denied it? You're really a piece of work."

The royal vehicle reached the shop meanwhile. Ravi's heart started pumping breathlessly and he started shivering. He kept looking at the vehicle without blinking. Vishwaprit stepped down from the car and walked towards Setupati.

Setupati was sitting there carelessly. He smiled at Vishwaprit and welcomed him. Vishwaprit smiled back and said,

"It's quite difficult to get your appointment, Setu."

"If I had come to meet you into that castle of yours, nobody would have gotten a chance to see you here. It's fun to get out of your big house and roam around."

Setu tried to cover his laziness and carelessness with his sweet words by changing the flow of discussion.

"Setu, we really have a very serious matter to discuss. Can we speak somewhere private?" Vishwaprit asked, he was being careful. If people heard and misunderstood the situation, it would be Chaos.

"Vishwa, why can't we speak here? I got to run my business, you know. I don't get paid by being royal like you." Setu complained as usual.

"Setu, listen carefully. Whatever we discuss today, will decide the future 'Vijaypath'. So I want you to be serious for a minute and listen what I say." Vishwaprit's voice became deeply serious.

Setu grasped the emergency of situation and stood up from his seat.

"As you wish, my king" He said with sarcastic tone and walked towards his house.

*******

Raghav's mom was waiting for Raghav for breakfast in the morning. It was his week off, so she was hoping to have breakfast with her beloved son. Taniya was also there. Her college's extra practical were cancelled, so she was also going to enjoy the family time.

He entered the room and his mom welcomed him with smile. She had asked to make his favourite dishes for his breakfast.

He looked little gloomy and tired to her.

"Honey, what will you like to eat?"

"Anything Maa." He replied.

"She had made all your favourite dishes, as if I don't exist. So please choose among these delicious dishes, my brother." Taniya commented with a sarcasm.

He laughed at her and started eating.

"So, how was your week at your job?"

"It was fine, Ma. Regular police work."

"They didn't give you any unsafe work, did they?" She asked.

"Ma, you and pa had made sure that I won't get any real police work. So everything is going as you had wished. I was burried in boring training sessions." He complained.

She seemed relieved after hearing that.

"Did you get bored, my son?"

"...."

"But at least you were safe." She tried to prove her point.

"Ma, let him do what he wants. You and Pa don't need interfere in his job. If you keep interfering like this, how will he know his true potential?" Taniya interrupted her mother.

"Thanks Sister."

"And after all those debates, you allowed him to join police department, then why are you stopping him now?" She continued.

"I just want my kids to be safe. And look at these children. One has joined police department and another is going to be a surgeon. Both of your jobs include blood and violence and I want to keep you far away from it." She explained her point.

"Ma, me and Taniya, we both have our own callings for whatever we are doing. Let us walk our path and reach our destination. We promise you to be safe always. You don't need to worry too much." Raghav pleaded.

"Fine. But you two have to be careful. This world is a scary place."

"But you can't protect us everywhere, Ma. The real way to protect us is to make us strong. So let us fly. Don't try to stop us now." Taniya won the argument.

"And Ma, one more thing, please don't ask my boss to give me only paper work to keep away from field work. Else I will join the 'Private Investigation' office, which is far more dangerous." Raghav blackmailed.

"Ok. Fine, fine." And she smiled. She had lost the argument but was feeling proud to have such smart children.

Hardly she had accepted her children's decisions, when her eyes caught the mark of injury on Raghav's forearm.

She held his arm and looked closely, the injury was recent.

"How exactly did you get injured while doing boring training sessions and paperwork?" She asked with doubt.

"Umm.... It's just a cut Ma."

"One of my colleagues and I were playing around with knives and all. It should have scratched me a little. It's nothing serious." He tried to explain.

Taniya was also looking at him, tried to guess why her brother was lying about a simple scratch. Something was wrong.

*******

"Come inside, Vishwa. It's been awhile since you have graced this house with your presence." Setu welcomed Vishwaprit into his house. Bhishu and his brother followed them like a shadow.

"I haven't been here since mother left us." Vishwa expressed his sadness towards the death of Setu's mother.

Vishwaprit didn't get his mother's love for long, so he was close to Setu's mother.

"Yeah. She would have welcomed you better. But now that I'm your host, this is the best I can do." He handed them a bottle of local drink.

"Thanks." Vishwaprit accepted the drink & showed his manners.

"Well, now, will you please explain what the heck is going on?" Setu asked in tired hopeless voice.

"Setu, will you believe me if I tell you that, the evils, our forefathers fought and destroyed centuries ago, have returned?"

"...."

"Will you believe me, if I tell you that our world, as if we know, is in grave danger, and we don't know how to defend it?"

"Vishwa, I know you never joke around. But, are really saying that the west has risen again? Why? How? How is it even possible?"

"We can't explain everything. But what we saw with our eyes, we have to declare that the west has risen again and we have to gather help. We have to find every soul who knows how to fight this enemy."

Setu started staring at the wall. His eyes widened with realisation of something horrific.

"Setu, what is it?" Vishwa asked impatiently.

"Did you see something, anything relevant?"

Setu kept staring at the wall but his eyes now started blinking. And his body got stiff rigid.

"He is having a vision. Bhishu, please bring some water."

Vishwa nearly jumped in front of Setu and held his hand. The moment he touched Setu, he felt cold darkness trying to catch him, but couldn't reach. Setu's cold hands started to get warm little by little. His eyes stopped blinking too fast.

Vishwa loosened his grip on his hand and looked at Setu. Setu's eyes were full of fear and horror, which were screaming to say that it has returned....

"So, is it true?" Vishwa asked a simple question.

"Vishwa, we need help if we have to fight this." Setu's voice felt helpless.

"Setu, I didn't come here only to confirm the return of the enemy."

"...." Setu looked at Vishwa with confusion.

"You're the only one who knows what true enemy is! The mist coming with the winds from the west, brings something unexpected. The unexpected only you know, or only you can know. You're the only one who can see through past, present and future." Vishwa's words drummed Setu's ears.

"Vishwa, even if we believe I know the enemy, will we able to destroy it? It was different at the time of our forefathers. They had power. I'm not as powerful as my great great grandfather and neither are you."

"I don't believe it. You might be the only one who can see beyond time. And you think yourself so powerless. You're underestimating your powers."

"No, Vishwa. A night before yesterday's, I had a dream, about my father and his father. They were talking to me, asking me to stay strong. As if they know what is going on. I don't think I have the power to destroy anything so evil"

"Setu, you are misunderstanding. Remember the legend, about the enemy.

'The one who will fight the enemy and destroy it forever will be born when the night skies will get filled with the mist'

I believe, the one who can destroy the enemy, is going to come. We just need to find him. Gather an army for him. You don't need to destroy it yourself. You just need to find who can." Vishwaprit's eyes were filled determination.

"If you believe I am the one who can find him, then I believe it too."

"Then, are you with me?"

Vishwa asked with excitement.

"Always" Setu replied.

********

That night, in the dark, he was sitting on the top of a building and was looking down the silent road. After waiting for a little while, he decided to leave... It was getting late. Plus he had to attend the guest he had captured last time. He hadn't given any useful information yet. His talks were irrelevant to the current world, as if he had come from past era or something.

But he was still investigating, his instincts were asking him to dig deeper. Something big fishy was burried underneath. He just wasn't able to find the right surface.

'The world has gotten weirder these days'  He thought to himself.

And jumped down the building from safer height. He started walking around the suspected area near the temple, when he heard some people fighting over something in the ally.

He walked towards the sound. He didn't try to hide himself. He just walked towards the people. Before he realised the what those people were discussing, they started to run away. They looked like normal people and they forgot to take their belongings with them whiile running away with fear. He looked at their belongings. There were some really weird stuff they had collected along with some ancient books. He grabbed the things and walked towards his car. Car engine started without making a sound.

He parked his car in the back parking of his house, grabbed the weird stuff he collected and entered the Kns group's family house.

He jumped up to the balcony and entered Raghav's room from the special back door only he knew how to open from outside.

He removed his black hoodie, opened bathroom and looked at his prisoner lying there. Poor thing.

The prisoner spoke with weak voice,

"You cannot save yourself this time, unless you worship him. You have worship him. He is our lord. He is hungry. We have to feed him."

Kalshrung looked at the prisoner's eyes and his roaring words filled the room,

"I'm Kalshrung. The end of all the evil and dark in this world. And your lord can't move a finger towards us, as long as I'm alive."

The prisoner went dead silent. The aura Kalshrung was so fearsome, he mistook him for his master for a moment.

Kalshrung shut the bathroom door furiously, maiking loud noise. Thanks to the sound proof walls, it didn't wake up anybody. He removed his black clothes, wore regular Raghav style pajamas and let his body sink in the soft bed.

He had the police duty to attend tomorrow. His day job, which can allow him to keep an eye on everything that is happening in the city.

Please rate, comment and vote!

********